382 LEPIDOPTERA. 



a little toward the head, which is of a bright chestnut colour^ 

 rounded, and very glossy ; body uniformly sooty-black, except 

 two subdorsal rows of deep velvety-black spots, each spot 

 nearly as long as the segment, rounded in front, squared 

 behind ; legs pale chestnut ; prolegs and under-surface sooty- 

 black. 



The larvas from which this description is taken were for- 

 warded for the purpose by Mr. C. S. Gregson of Liverpool. 

 Probably there is some variation in colour which these 

 examples do not indicate, since Mr. Buckler's figures have 

 the ground-colour in one case dark green, in the other dark 

 purple. When very young they are green, with the subdorsal 

 blotches indicated but paler ; when half grown bright green, 

 with the blotches darker, but indistinct, and the head dark- 

 brown. 



September to May, hybernating. Mr. Gregson says that 

 three to five young larvae may be found together in old webs 

 left by another species on the flowering spikes of Solidago 

 virgaurea. Doubtless any suitable protection is made use of. 

 Throughout the winter on grass, Hclianthemwm (rock-rose or 

 sun-cistus), wild thyme, barnet, sallow, heather, golden-rod, 

 B'ieracium, Galium, Cari^mnida rotundifulia, and almost 

 any low-growing hill plants. In captivity it willingly eats 

 the blossoms of primrose, and rejoices in sallow-catkins. 

 Unlike the majority of its allies, it is not exclusively a night 

 feeder. On the contrary, the local collectors search for it 

 regularly by day. Mr. F. 0. Woodforde writes me this spring : 

 " Nearly all the larvte are taken in the daytime ; it would be 

 next to impossible to work at night where it is most numerous, 

 on account of the danger. Of course, it does feed at night, 

 and I have found it at that time by the aid of a lamp, but I 

 found more in the daytime. On warm days, when the sun 

 is not too hot, it comes out and feeds, stretched at full length 

 on its food plant, chiefly between noon and 1 P.M., and 

 between 3 and 4 p.m. It is most frequently found on very 

 steep and bare ground, where wild thyme with cistus and 



